Russia’s first airstrikes in Syria Wednesday targeted areas held by rebels receiving arms, funding, and training from the CIA and killed dozens of civilians, according to U.S. officials and published reports.

The Syrian National Council, a group opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, told Sky News that at least 36 people had been killed by airstrikes in the western city of Homs, including five children. Khaled Khoja, the SNC’s leader, told Sky that none of the four areas targeted by Russian planes Wednesday contained ISIS fighters and called Moscow’s claim that it was helping the U.S.-led coalition defeat the terror group “baseless.”

A senior U.S. defense official said the Russian strikes targeted fighters in the vicinity of Homs, located roughly 60 miles east of a Russian naval facility in Tartus, and were carried out by a “couple” of Russian bombers. In a video released by the U.S.-backed rebel group Tajamu Alezzah, jets are seen hitting a building claimed to be a location of the group in the town of Latamna in the central Hama province.

The group commander Jameel al-Saleh told a local Syrian news website that the group’s location was hit by Russian jets but didn’t specify the damage.

……Moscow rejected claims that it was targeting so-called “moderate” rebels , as well as reports of civilians deaths. A spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry claimed to Sky News that the claims were part of an “information war … which, it appears, someone prepared well.”

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Russian Air Forces are cooperating with the Syrian pro-government military to target “exclusively” Islamic State (ISIS) targets.

“Rumors that the targets of these strikes were not IS positions were groundless,” Lavrov stressed, adding that the Russian Defense Ministry has clearly stated on its website the targets and objectives of Russian airstrikes in Syria.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its warplanes targeted and destroyed eight positions belonging to ISIS extremists, though it did not give specific locations. But French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers in Paris: “Curiously, they didn’t hit Islamic State. I will let you draw a certain number of conclusions yourselves.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was prepared to welcome Russian military action in Syria as long as it is directed against ISIS and other Al Qaeda affiliates, but would have “grave concerns” if it conducted strikes against other groups.

What a fucking incompetent retard. Does Kerry really think the Russians’ intent is to target ISIS?

Worried by the threat of Russian and U.S. jets clashing inadvertently over Syrian skies, Washington agreed to talk to Moscow on how to “deconflict” their military actions. Last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter had a 50-minute phone call with his Russian counterpart — the first such military-to-military discussion between the two countries in more than a year.

Earlier Wednesday, Pentagon officials, in a development first reported by Fox News, brushed aside an official request, or “demarche,” from Russia to clear air space over northern Syria.

The request was made in a heated discussion between a Russian three-star general and U.S. officials at the American Embassy in Baghdad, sources said.

“If you have forces in the area we request they leave,” said the general, who used the word “please” in the contentious encounter.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press said there were no conflicts with the Russian strikes, and they had no impact on coalition missions, which primarily attacked targets in the north and east.

“We still conducted our normal strike operations in Syria today,” a senior Pentagon official told Fox News. “We did not and have not changed our operations.

Putin’s neo-Soviet regime has a golden opportunity to exploit the crisis and escalate their power. Obama will do nothing to stop it. If Russia tried this under the Reagan administration, Vlad would have been publicly taken to the fucking woodshed. During the past 7 years of Barky’s tenure, Russia has rebuilt its military to levels not seen since the Cold War.

Putin’s strategy is bizarre, but it’s working. He sent trained jihadists into Syria, where they have joined up not only with ISIS but other terrorist factions. Then he cozied up to Assad by sending troops, tanks, and artillery; none of which is being used to fight ISIS.

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Thanks to the mis-governance of our current regime, Russia is on the cusp of realizing a century-old dream –full access to warm-water port(s) into the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Prior to this, Russia’s only ice-free (and not always so) port has been Vladivostok. Stir in the middle eastern oil fields and the resulting mixture is, or should be, terrifying. Remember, Russia already has a lock on all natural gas going into Europe — and winter will be here soon.

The USSR is rising again and no one is lifting a finger to stop or contain it.